How to Set Up the PlayStation4

Learn how to set up the PS4 from expert gamer Rob Pimental in this Howcast video.

Transcript

So you have a PS4, and now you want to set it up, and you're not sure where to start. Well luckily it's a very simple process, because they've streamlined a lot of it into one option. We're gonna walk through really quickly how you can go ahead and do that. So right here I have the Playstation 4 box set up, it's not hooked up to a TV or anything, and I'm just gonna show you what goes where, and how you're gonna want to set this up.

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So first off, you're gonna want to take your plug, your power plug. This will change, depending on the region you're in. This is for the North American region, so it's got the plug for North American outlets. This should be the same in all of them. And it's actually pretty much a symmetrical plug, you don't really have to worry about which prong's going where. And you just go ahead and plug it in. Once you plug that in to the wall, it's going to be turned off, and I'll show you where you're going to turn it on in just a second.

Next up, you're going to grab your HDMI cable. HDMI is the only video output that the Playstation 4 supports officially. They've done away with composite and component. If you do find that you need that for your television set, you're gonna have to look into getting some sort of adapter or converter, and that's a whole other issue that you're gonna have to look into. But in the meantime, let's just take a look at the HDMI. It just goes right in there very simply, and the other end's either gonna go into your television, or it's gonna go into your receiver if you have a home theater set up. Whichever the inputs are going into, that's where it's gonna go.

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And as far as the back's concerned, that's all that's required. If you have a wired network, you don't want to use wireless and you have the Ethernet cable available, you could go right into that plug there. If you have a Playstation camera, you're gonna go into this proprietary little plug right here. And if you want to use digital audio out, or the optical audio, you're just gonna use that plug right there. And that's as far as setting up the back.

Now once that's set up, we'll stand it up right here, you're gonna have to do a little bit of work in the front. The first time you set up a Playstation 4, it needs to pair the controller with the Playstation 4. So what you're gonna do is you're gonna take your micro-USB, and again, this is very similar to mini-USB, but it is not the same thing. So if you have extra mini-USBs lying around, they're not gonna be very helpful. But luckily you can get longer micro-USBs for a pretty cheap price. And you're gonna plug it into your controller, and that's gonna go into one of the two USB ports here, and these both use USB 3.0. And you're gonna plug it in there, and that's how those two are gonna sync.

And then you could just turn it on. So right here, you have your eject button, and here you have your power button. Now it's sort of cheating to call these buttons, because they're not actually buttons. You don't press them in. What they really are are touch-sensitive spaces. So you just run your finger over them when you want to power them on. So you're gonna run your finger over this one to power it on, and it's gonna walk you through a step-by-step, very simple process to either log into your Playstation Network ID if you already have one from last gen, or it's gonna prompt you to create one.

Now, making a Playstation Network account is completely free. There is no cost attached to it. Making a Playstation Plus account does have a cost attached to it, and that's gonna vary depending on how you're acquiring it. If you're doing it through Sony directly, you know, it's a flat monthly fee. Sometimes a lot of retailers will sell cards with about a year, or three months, six months, a year's worth of Playstation Plus. And that price can vary, depending on whatever deals they want to set up. And you're just gonna run through that, and you're gonna jump right into the menu, and you can start gaming.

Again, I can't stress enough, the real focus of the Playstation 4, and this generation in general, among all of the consoles, is to really minimize the amount of time it takes for you to hit the power button, to jump into a game. So that's just a quick look at how you want to physically set up the Playstation 4 and get started gaming.